Google patent to make The Truman Show a reality?

Good post by Bill Slawski of ‘SEO by the Sea’ yesterday covering Googles Patent application for Query-based User Groups – the dynamic creation of Google Circles based on what Google know’s about you.

Bill summarises, “A query-based social circle approach could potentially connect a lot of people who might otherwise not communicate, and there seems to be a lot of potential in enabling people to connect through circles like this.”.

Road testing the idea in the office this morning, I threw the question out to F5’s Ellie Robson, Marketing Ops PM, who feels this is, “…far too stalkerish. I don’t want strangers talking to me because of a false sense of familiarity derived from their ‘smart’ phone”.

My inner geek tells me this is quite cool. Its using data sources already in existence, like location, personal preferences, habits, and its turning them into something meaningful. On the other hand, its using my location, personal preferences and habits – to reach out to strangers.

Are we venturing dangerously close to Drew Carey’s character in ‘The Truman Show’ – where Truman thinks that he is an ordinary man with an ordinary life and has no idea about how he is exploited?

And where would this work? I struggle to see it here in the UK where talking to another passenger on the train is strictly taboo; make eye contact at your own risk. Or, is this a generational thing? I, for one, can’t help feeling that take up of such an experience is something a new generation needs to be born into. A generation with less of a sense of privacy.

I like a bit of mystery, an element of surprise in my day. Of not knowing what could happen next.

Curiosity didn’t kill the cat. Curiosity gave it a reason to go outside and explore!